Paper Hearts and Paper Roses
by justalonelytheatrekid
Summary: Eponine has been using her so called "love" for Marius to cover up her feelings for Enjolras for years, but this Valentine's Day, everything will change. High School AU. E/E. One-shot. FLUFF. Written for Valentine's Day, but posted late (sorry).


**A/N: Hey there! Okay, so I wrote this for Valentine's Day, but I left my laptop at my friend's house over the weekend and I just got it back, but whatever, no I'm posting it. This is only the second fan fic I've written, so please don't hate me, but I like reviews, whether they're good or bad, so yeah. R&R!**

* * *

Les Amis de l'ABC have all been friends since they were kids. Growing up, they were the popular group at school, starting with just Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac in kindergarten. In 1st grade, Grantaire and Joly joined their little group of misfits when they helped the three others build a barricade to keep the teacher out of the classroom. Enjolras liked their motivation and helpfulness.

Later that year, Marius moved to their small town and instantly joined the group (it was only because on his third day of school, he brought cupcakes for his birthday and Courfeyrac convinced Enj that he was a good match for them). Eponine moved in on their group at the beginning of the second grade, and Bahorel came soon after.

Feuilly's entrance to Les Amis came as a surprise. He pushed Marius off the swing, making him cry, and Eponine punched him in the face for hurting her friend. Combeferre and Joly helped the "bully" to the nurse's office, and he was in love with Eponine from that point until their freshman year.

Jehan and Bossuet were cousins who moved together in the fifth grade, and joined the group when Enjolras liked the poem that Jehan wrote. Musichetta joined the group after having a huge fight with Eponine, but the two girls instantly became friends after the dispute (Enjolras never understood girls).

Their group stayed like this up until their senior year, when everything suddenly seemed to burst into flames. It all started one day when the group was in their usual café, the Musain, just studying and hanging out, when Marius burst through the door… singing. If you knew Marius, you knew he didn't sing. Ever. He sounded like a walrus and a lion mating.

"Marius, are you okay?" Joly asked his freckled friend.

"I am so much better than okay," Marius replied as he plopped down onto the couch next to Eponine. "I think I'm in love."

"Really?"

"Yes! She's absolutely perfect!"

"Who's the lucky lady?" Grantaire asked.

"Have you finally discovered your feelings for Eppy?" Courf retorted sarcastically.

Eponine' head snapped up at the mention of her name. Her eyes locked with Courfeyrac's, and his eyes instantly grew wide and he flushed red. He mouthed a "sorry" at the girl, and she just looked back down at her hands.

"No. I have met someone else. Her name is Cosette," Marius sighed.

Eponine's head shot back up as she recognized the name leaving her friend's lips. Cosette was a girl in her choir and drama classes. The girl was practically perfect; she had long, golden hair, a tiny waist, and the bluest eyes Eponine had ever seen (other than Enjolras's, of course).

The entire group cheered for their friend and his newfound love, except Enjolras and Eponine. Enjolras sat stone-faced as always, while Eponine was silent with her hands in her lap and her eyes wide.

"Eponine!"

Her head rose to the sound of her name. She locked eyes with Marius as he took his hands in hers.

"Ep, I need you to do something for me," he asked.

"For you, monsieur, anything," the brunette replied.

"I need you to give this to Cosette for me. She's in choir with you, right?" he handed her a small note with "Cosette" written in his nearly perfect script.

Eponine saw the love is his eyes as he asked for his favour. He truly loved this girl.

"Sure. What else are friends for?" Eponine smiled back at Marius. "I should be heading home. It's getting late." Eponine grabbed her messenger bag and headed home. She did not get far from the café before she felt a hand wrap around her small wrist. Eponine turned around to see Enjolras.

"Ep? Can I, uh… can I walk you home?" he asked nervously. Eponine smiled at her friends, flashing her dimples his direction.

"Of course, monsieur."

The two teens walked the entire way in complete silence. Once they reached Eponine's pathetic excuse for a house, Enjolras broke the silence.

"You know, you don't have to give Cosette that letter."

"Why wouldn't I? Marius asked me to. "

"Because he doesn't love you back."

"Enj, you don't need to protect me. If I want to help him, I can." She started up the steps to her porch before she was interrupted by Enjolras's voice again.

"You know, Ep, there are some people out there who would love you a thousand times more than Marius ever will."

The girl turned to see the street in front of her completely empty, with no trace of Enjolras at all.

* * *

Enjolras's words echoed in Eponine's mind as she laid in her bed. Was he talking about himself? Did he like her? Was he finally catching onto her act? Eponine had ever meant to let her lie get this out of hand. Marius was just her beard, no matter how bad she felt about it at times. Eponine had always loved Enjolras, but he could never know, not after what happened…

_Eponine took a deep breath before entering the classroom. It was Valentine's Day, and she could only afford to make one person a valentine. Everyone in her third grade class passed around their cute little paper cards and candy to their friends, until it came to Eponine. She crossed the room with shaking knees and set a large, red paper heart and a paper rose she had spent the entire night before making on her friend's desk._

_ The blonde boy looked up at her with his big blue eyes and, as usual, he had no emotion on his face. _

_ "Enj… I, uh, I made these for you. I know red is your favourite colour, so I made the heart red just for you."_

_ The young girl practically ran back to her seat and hid her face with her long brown hair, barely peeking through to see his reaction. The boy just sat in his chair staring at the paper she had left in front of him, when Courfeyrac leaned forward in his chair. _

_ "Who's that from?" Courf asked, smirking at the paper decorations. _

_ "Eppy." Enjolras replied. _

_ "LAME," yelled Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Combeferre looking down on Eponine's gifts._

_ Hearing their words, Eponine bolted out of the small classroom, leaving her friends behind. For the rest of the day, she sat in the girls' bathroom crying and telling herself that she could never tell Enjolras about her real feelings…_

* * *

The next day just happened to be Valentine's Day, Eponine's least favourite holiday, for obvious reasons. Once again, Les Amis were in the Musain, just having coffee and chatting away. Since middle school, they had had a tradition almost like a Secret Santa; only it was a Secret Valentine. Everyone had picked a name out of a hat, and had to get that person something meaningful.

Out of complete luck, Ep had pulled Grantaire's name out of the hat. Getting something for her best friend was not hard. The group sat in their cozy little corner of the café and give their gifts; Eponine got Grantaire a bunch of random Playbills she found online (he collects them), Grantaire got Jehan a set of fancy writing pens, Jehan got Courfeyrac a 200 pack of condoms with a giant winky face drawn on it in Sharpie (everyone knew what those two were doing that night), Courf got Feuilly an origami paper set, Feuilly got Joly cough drops, Joly got Musichetta a $25 iTunes card, Musichetta got Marius a new backpack (his was barely holding on by a few threads), Marius got Bossuet an new ankle brace (he would need it soon enough), Bossuet got Combeferre a new paint brush set, Ferre got Bahorel a new set of boxing gloves, and Bahorel got Enjolras 5 pairs of French flag boxer shorts (he already had 10 pairs). Only Enjolras was nowhere to be found. Since Enjolras was the epitome of being punctual, everyone sat in their seats completely dumbfounded.

Eponine's palms her sweating like crazy. Obviously, Enjolras was her Secret Valentine, which meant he had to get her something meaningful. That was the rule. And after what he had said to her the night before, Eponine was nervous to no end. All she could do was wait.

At a quarter to ten, Enjolras bolted through the door with a red wrapped box in his hands.

"Sorry I'm late. It took me a while to find Ep's present," he stated as he sat next to the brunette. He handed her the box and stared at her, almost begging her to open it.

"I should be getting home," the girl responded.

"I'll walk with you. I want to see your reaction," he smiled.

Eponine knew something was wrong. Enjolras actually _smiled_ at her. The two began the same walk that happened the night before. Eponine weighed the package as they walked toward her house. They stopped at the same spot they had the night before.

"Okay, I can't wait. Just open it," Enjolras was practically bouncing.

Once she saw the contents of the box, tears began to fall from her brown eyes. She slowly pulled out the large paper heart and rose she had given him in the third grade. Underneath those was a collage of pictures of the two of them since first grade. Eponine slowly looked up at her blonde friend with disbelief in her eyes.

Enjolras smiled and asked her, "So, do you rememb-"only to be cut off by Eponine's lips crashing into his. She had dropped the gifts he gave her and wrapped her arms around his neck. Enjolras was still with shock for a moment, but eventually began to kiss her back and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Their bodies molded together as they kissed, creating an almost clichéd perfect moment. Soon enough, they needed to come up for air. As Enjolras pulled away, he rested his forehead on Eponine's.

"How do you still have those? Grantaire told me you threw them away the day I gave them to you," Eponine asked after a moment.

"No. Courf threw them away as a joke, but I fished them out after class. I kept them because I thought that was you telling me that you liked me, but you started avoiding me after that. Then, you claimed to be in love with Marius, and at first, I didn't believe it, but you just kept claiming that you loved him, so I went with it. I… I waited for you, Ep. I have been waiting for the day that you would look at me the way you looked at him."

"I'm an actor, Enj. I'm supposed to fake it, remember? I only said that I loved Marius because of the way you reacted that day"

"So, you did always like me?" Enj pulled away to look at her. Eponine simply rolled her eyes and kissed him again.

"Yes, it was always you." She smiled up at him.

Enjolras wrapped his arms around Eponine's waist and kissed the girl he loved again, with a paper heart and paper rose just lying at their feet.


End file.
